HBO Confirms ‘Game of Thrones’ Final Season Will Premiere in 2019

Because what better time than a winter storm for ominous Game of Thrones news? That dreadful day has finally arrived, as HBO confirms the eighth and final season will sit out 2018 altogether, finishing its adapted Song of Ice and Fire in 2019.

Granted, most involved with production had previously suggested as much, and star Liam Cunningham already told us production would last into summer 2018. The penultimate nail in the coffin came came with Sophie Turnerreferencing the final season’s 2019 premiere, and HBO at last confirmed the news in a press release. If nothing else, HBO reiterated the final six episodes’ directors as David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik, with Benioff, Weiss, Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill writing.